Systematically Naming Your Graphics

Careful organization of your site when initally designed will be of a tremendous help to you in the future as your site grows.

One of the ways to organize your site is to keep your media in media specific directories such as your graphics within an "images" or "graphics" folder. You can shorten the directory name to "i", "g", etc. if you like.

Another important step to consider is when you name your graphics. Systematically naming your images will help you quickly find something later located within your "images" or "graphics" folder.

One very helpful way to name your images is to start the image name with a short alpha code, such as those listed below. Categorizing them as image "types" or by "function".

- header graphics: hd
- navigational graphics: nav
- footer graphics: ft
- buttons: btn
- banners: bnr
- logos: lo
- advertisements: ad
- thumbnail: tn
- preview image: pi
- affiliates: af
- sponsors: sp

For banner and buttons that are required to be a particular size, you might name them something like this:

btn88x31.gif = standard link button 88x31 pixels
bnr468x60.gif = standard banner 468x60 pixels